Spring clothespin packaging



Sept. 8, 1959 H. A. woLTl-:R ET AL SPRING cLoTHEsPIN PACKAGING y 5 Sheets-Sheet l Filed Aug. 7, 1956 INVENTORS O c QCS BY Mmm (JO ATTORNEY Sept. 8, 1959 Filed Aug. '7, 1956 H. A. woLTER ET AL 2,902,750

SPRING CLOTHE-SPIN PACKAGING 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTORS @gem QZ BY uw ATTORNEY H. A. woLTER ET AL 2,902,750

SPRING CLOTHESPIN PACKAGING Sept. 8, 1959 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Aug. '7, 1956 Lm (A) R185 ATTORNEY Sept 8, 1959 H. A. woLTl-:R ET Al. 2,902,750

SPRING CLOTHESPIN PACKAGING 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed Aug. 7, 1956 SePt- 8, 1959 H. A. woLTE ET AL 2,902,750

SPRING cLoTHEsPIN PACKAGING 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Aug. '7, 1956 INVENTOR BY ab ELoeAcS ATTORNEY United States Patent SPRING CLGTHESPIN PACKAGING Harry A. Wolter, Akron, Ohio, and Gerald L. Vaughan,

Rumford, Maine, assignors to Diamond Gardner Corporation, a corporation taf-Delaware Application August 7, 1956, Serial No. 602,576

18 Claims. (Cl. 29-211) This invention generally pertains to a novel machine for assembling a plurality of individual clothespins vtogether .in such a fashion that the assembled clothespins are essentially a unitary package of clothespins which can be easily handled, wrapped, packed, shipped, etc. More particularly, this invention relates to a novel machine for aligning and joining together a plurality of clothespins of the vspring-clamp type. y

Spring-clamp clothespins were invented many years ago and today the art of making these clothespins has progressed to vsuch an extent that the clothespins can be produced by automatically operated machines. Even though the clothespins can be made automatically on machines, one of the undesirable bottlenecks of 'production fis the comparatively great amount of time required for workers to count and package the clothespins for ship'- ment. The cost of the time required for manual counting, gathering and packaging represents a considerable portion of the total cost of the product.

.An object of this invention is to provide a novel apparatus which is adapted to take clothespins from a bulk supply thereof, in which they are haphazardly or indiscriminately stored, and to cause the clothespins to assume 'an orderly 'and uniform arrangement in a simple, positive and expeditious manner, so as to dispose the clothespins in a position such as to facilitate packing thereof.

It is an object of the instant invention to provide a machine for automatically assembling a plurality A'of clothespins into a unitary group. v v

Itis a further object of this invention to position and move the plurality of clothespins in timed relation so that the final assembly is obtained in an automatic and expeditious manner.

Other objects and the nature and 'advantages of the instant invention will be apparent from the following descripti'on taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a plan view, partly broken away, of the apparatus in 'accordance with the present invention;

Fig. 2 'is a section taken approximately on the line y2---2 of Fig. l;

Fig. 3 is a section taken approximately on the line 3-3 of Fig. l; f

Fig. 4 is a side elevation of the apparatus shown in Fig. l;

Fig. 4a is an enlarged detail of the solenoid controls shown in Figs. 1 and 4;

Fig. 5 is a side sectional View along lines 5--5 of the apparatus shown in Fig. l at the moment that the clothespins are to be clamped to a spacer member;

Fig. 6 is an enlarged detail of the spacer feeding mechani'srn fof this invention;

Fig. '7 is a diagrammatic illustration showingA the el'othesp'ins at the various stages they go through prior to opening; v

Fig. 8 is a diagrammatic illustration showing the manthe forward position.

2,902,7 Patented Sept. 8, 1959 ICC ner in which the jaws of the clothespins are opened and a spacer inserted therein; and

Fig. 9 is a detail view of the clothes pin assembly which results from using the apparatus of this invention.

In broad outline, the operation of the apparatus of this invention can probably be best understood by referring to Figs. 7, 8 and 9. In these drawings, it will be seen that a clothespin feed tray 30 containing a plurality of clothespins 5 moves in a horizontal plane from position A to position B. In position B, the tray of clothespins is positioned directly under compression roller 6, and when the lever A62 and shaft 64 are caused to rotate counterclockwise around the axis of shaft 64 by the downward movement of lever 67, rocker arm 10 and compression roller 6 are caused to move in a clockwise position with the result that 'the jaws of the clothespin are forced open (as in position C). Simultaneously with the opening of 'the jaws of the cl-othespin by the compression roller 6 the spacer member' feeding and guiding mechanism is actuated so that a spacer member 8 is fed into the open jaws of the clothespin 5. More particularly, when rack form 86 is moved toward the right, it turns gear wheel in a counterclockwise direction which, in turn, moves rack form 98 toward the left. Since rack form 98 is integrally connected to the bottom of spacer member feed plate .18, plate 18 also moves to the left, and as it does so linger members 10) located on the top of guide plate i8 strip a single spacer member 8 from the vertical stack of spacers vresting in feed magazine 20. Spacer member 8 may, in its simplest form, merely be an elongated rectangular piece of wood, plastic, cardboard, etc.

vA more exact and detailed understanding as to how the operations broadly outlined in Figs. 7-9 are accomplislred, can be gained by referring to Figs. 1-6 from which it will be understood that a main frame or bed plate 2 supports both the clothespin and spacer member feeding mechanisms. The main bed plate2 contains two parallel runways 24 within which a movable carriage plate 26 is adapted to move with the aid of rollers V28 andv 29 (which bear against bot-h the sides and the bottom of U- shaped runway 24); A plurality lof parallel alignment guides 4 (ten are shown in the drawings) are located on a clothespin feed tray 30 and plates 26 and tray 30 are fastened together by means of screws or other suitable fastening means so that they will move asa single unit. An interior cam arrangement 32 depends downwardly from eachof the two movable carriage plates 26 through elongated openings '27 in the bed plate 2 and the vertically disposed curved slot 31 in each interior cam 32 is adapted to engage a roller 34 attached to 'the outer periphery `of wheels 36 by means of bolts 38. Wheels 36 are keyed on shaft 40 and when wheels 36 are caused to rotate, the rotary movement of peripheral roller 34 causes' the interior cam 32 to move forward during the first 160 that it revolves and backward to its original position during the second that it revolves with a 40 dwell at The shaft 40 is rotated when the toothed gear wheel 42, which is also journalled on shaft 40, i-s driven by intermeshing toothed gear wheel 44 which is lixed on drive shaft 45. Drive shaft 45 is in turn rotated by drive motor 46 through a series of appropriate transmission gears located in gear box 48,. Drive motor 46 and gear box -48 are secured t-o the bottom of bed plate 2 by means of suitable bolts 49 and shaft y40 is rotatably suspended by means of hangers or pillar blocks 50 which are also mounted beneath and fastened to bed plate 2.

The compression bar 6 Iextends almost across fthe entire width of the bed plate 2 and is linked by bol-ts 11 'to rocker arms V10 which pivot about pins 56. Pins 56 are located in opposed brackets 13 which are bolted to the bed plate 2 by meansof bolts 15. The rocker arms 10 are caused to pivot in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction about pins 56 when the projections 58 bolted on the lower portion of rocker arms by bolt 59 are moved to the right or left by a corresponding movement of the rocker arm engaging slots 60 located in the upper portion of levers 62. The lower portion of levers 62 rotates in accordance with the rotation of shaft 64 which is suspended a fixed distance beneath the bed plate 2 by means of hangers 66. A second lever 67 is located near the center of shaft 64 and extends backwardly therefrom. The rearmost extremity of lever 67 contains a roller 68 which is adapted to engage a cam 70. When the irregular surface of cam 70, which is journalled on shaft 40, is rotated it comes in contact with roller 68, roller 68 and lever 67 are pushed downwardly, shaft 64 rotates in a counterclockwise direction, the top portions of levers 62 move to the left, the lower portion of rocker arms v10 is moved to the left, the upper portion of rocker arms 10 moves in a clockwise direction about the axis of pins 56, Vand compression barV 6 moves in a downward or clockwise direction. A spring 79 or any other equivalent tensioning means is employed to bias lever 67 in an upward (or clockwise) position so as to maintain contact with cam 70. The bed plate 2 contains an elongated oval slot 81 which permits the rocker arm 10 to depend downwardly therethrough.

A third cam 74 on shaft 40 contacts a roller 76 which is attached to arm 78 by means of a bolt 80. The left extremity of arm 78 is fork-shaped so that the upper arm 82 and the lower arm 84 can be slidably mounted in the upper and lower grooves of rotatable shaft block 83, thus insuring lateral alignment of arm 78 and roller 76 regardless of how far cam 74 and roller 76 may cause the opposite end of arm 78 to move to the right. The right end of arm 78 contains a rack arrangement 86 whose lower surface is slidably engaged with a hanger track 88 which is rotatably suspended from shaft 92. The upper toothed surface of rack form V86 engages a toothed gear wheel 90. Toothed gear wheel 90 is journalled to shaft 92 which is rotatably suspended beneath bed plate 2 by means of hangers or pillar blocks 94 and bolts 95. Shaft 92 also contains two additional toothed gears 96 which are keyed thereto and which, in turn, engage rack forms 98 through slots 97 in bed pate 2. Rack forms 98 are xed to the bottom of spacer member feed plate 18 so that any angula`r movement in toothed gear wheels 90 and 96 produces a corresponding movement in the spacer member feed plate 18 to the left or to the right. Rackforms 98 move back and forth within the recessed portion 99 of bed plate 2.` Side tracks 101 are fastened to bed plate 2 by means of bolts 103 and form a recessed trackway for the side of spacer member feed plate 18 so as to limit its vertical and lateral movement. As can be seen in the drawing, magazine 20 may simply consist of two vertically mounted U-shaped channel members which may be anchored lto the bed plate 2 by means of bolts 105 and brackets 107. Cross member 109 serves to brace the opposed U-shaped channel member and additionally serves as a mounting for downwardly depending guards 102.

vAs spacer member feed plate 18 moves to the left, upstanding fingers 100 which are fixed in spaced parallel relationship on the upper side of plate 18 will also move tothe left and beneath the stack of spacer members 8 in magazine 20 and will remove the lowermost spacer member from the stack and carry it to the left. Downwardly depending guards 102 maintain a specied opening through which spacer members may pass, thus insuring that only one spacer member at a time is stripped otf of the bottom `of the stack.V The stack of spacer members in magazine 20 may be pushed downwardly by their own weight, but if desired, weights or springs may be employed for .this purpose.

Figs. .1, 4 and 4a show that still another sam 104, part of a one-revolution clutch X, Fig. 2, is journalled on shaft 40. Cam 104 has a substantially straight portion which is adapted to engage the lower end of an elongated pawl 108. The upper end of pawl 108 is keyed to a shaft 110 which is suspended beneath the bed plate 2 by means of hangers 112. The opposite extremity of shaft 110 is attached to link 114 which, in turn, is connected to solenoid 116 by means of a second link 118. The overall purpose of this arrangement is to provide the operator with aV means for insuring that the Various feeding mechanisms of the machine will not work until the operator is sure that all of the necessary clothespins are in their appropriate places. For example, until such time as the operator is Vready'to actuate the several feeding mechanisms, the pawl 108 and linke 114) will be in a substantially vertical position, thus engaging cam 104 and preventing rotation of the shaft 40. When the operator desires to actuate the feeding mechanisms, he can do so by energizing solenoid 116'so that'links 118 and 114 move to the left, thus rotating shaft 110 in a clockwise direction, which in turn moves pawl 108 to the left. When pawl 108 movesto the left, it disengages the cam 104, thus permitting the one-revolution clutch X to rotate the entire shaft 40 to r'nove one revolution in a clockwise direction, whereafter the pawl 108 again engages cam 104 and further operation of the machine is prevented until the operator once again energizes the solenoid 116. f

Referring now in more detail to the overall operation of the machine of this invention, nine clothespins are fed into the nine parallel trackways formed between adjacent trackway guides 4 on the feed plate 30. The nine clothespins are manually or automatically pushed forward until the rearmost portion of the clothespins has passed over the recessed step located in the forward portion of feed plate 30. The operator then energizes solenoid 116 (e.g., by pressing a button) and as previously described, the pawl 108 is thereby disengaged` from the cam'104. Momentary release of the cam 104 causes engagement of the one-revolution clutch X, thereby rotating the shaft 40 in a clockwise direction for one revolution. Reengagement of the cam 104 by the pawl 108, after one revolution of shaft 40, prevents further rotation of this shaft. When the shaft 40 rotates, all of the gears, cams and wheels fixed thereto also rotate in a clockwise direction. Wheel 36 and peripheral roller 34 move interior cam 32 lso as to cause the clothespin feed plate 30 to move forward'(to the right). As the clothespin feed plate 30 moves forward, the clothespins resting thereon move forward under bumper arm and bumper bar 132. Bumper arm 130 pivots about the pin 134 located on bracket 136 which, in turn, is anchored to the top of runways 24 by means of bolts 137. Bumper arm 130 and bumper bar 132 are lightly and yieldably tensioned ina downward direction by a light bent spring 140 (e.g., the same type that is used in the clothespins) so that as the clothespin feed plate 30 and the clothespins resting on it are lcaused to move forward the clothespins will essentially wedge or squeeze themselves under bumper'bar 132 with hardly any noticeable effort. Stated in other words, bumper arm 130 and bumper bar 132 are raised slightly by the forward movement of the clothespins without offering any noticeable resistance to movement. (It should be noted that bumper bar 132 also facilitates loading of the pins since it provides a stop for the pins' being placed on the feed plate to prevent them from being pushed too far in.) As the clothespin feed plate 30 moves as far lforward as it'will go, cam 70 which is also on shaft 40, is likewise rotating clockwise and at the proper moment will push roller 68 downwardly, which, in turn, causes shaft 64 to rotate counterclockwise, the upper part of levers 62 move to the left, the lower portion of rockerarms 10 is moved to the left, the upper portion of rocker arms 10 moves in a clockwise direction about pins 56, and compression roller 6 moves in a downward direction. kAs ,compression roller -6 moves in a downward direction, t presses down upon the rearmost portion of the clothespin 'with the result that 'the 'of the clothespins are spread' open (as is best shown in Fig. 5). At the same timeA that the jaws of the clothespins are being spread open, cam 74 is also rotating in a clockwise direction fso as to cause arm 78, rack 86, gear wheel 90 and racks 98 to move spacer member feed plate 18 in the opposite direction tdwhich the clothespin feed plate 30 has been moving. As spacer member yfeed plate 18 moves toward the open jaws of the aligned clothespins, fingers l100 remove the lowermos'tspacer member lfrom the stack and carry it into the open jaws of the clothespins. Shortly after the spacer member has thus been inserted in the open jaws of the aligned clothespins, the cam 70 associated with compression roller 6 rotates so as to allow the compression bar to rise upwardly and back to return to its original position. As soon as the compression roller 6 rises upwardly, the jaws of the aligned clothespins will clamp shut on the spacer member 8. About the same time that the jaws of the clothespins clamp shut on spacer member 8, the cam which actuates spacer member feed plate 18 causes the plate to reverse its direction until it too reaches its original position. After the spacer member feed plate 18 and its associated lingers 100 have been withdrawn from the vicinity of the clothespin jaws, wheel 36 and roller 34 cause interior cam 32 to reverse direction, which in turn causes clothespin feed plate 30 to reverse direction until it has reached its original position. As clothespin feed plate 3i) begins its movement to the left, the clothespins (now clamped on the spacer member) will also tend to move to the left. However, bumper bar 132 is suiciently low and unyielding so that it prevents rearward movement of the clothespins, but bumper 132 is not low enough to restrict rearward movement of the clothespin feed plate 30. Accordingly, as the clothespin feed plate 30 returns to its original position, the grouped clothespins in effect have their support pulled out from under them, with the result that the grouped clothespins fall downwardly through slot 142 and into trough 144, which may empty into any suitable container or conveyor belt.

It is thus seen that the apparatus of this invention permits the rapid and automatic grouping of a plurality of clothespins into a single aligned unit which can be rapidly handled, wrapped and packed. It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that the apparatus of this invention might easily be coordinated with other machinery so as to increase the extent to which clothespins can be manufactured automatically with the minimum necessity for manual labor. By way of example, other machines which automatically make the individual clothespins would be arranged to feed its output directly to the alignment guides 4 of the instant apparatus, and in a similar manner the grouped clothespin unit of this invention could be fed by means of chutes or conveyor belts to other machines which would automatically wrap and/or pack the clothespins for shipment.

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention and therefore the invention is not limited to what is shown in the drawings and described in the specification but only as indicated in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus for assembling spring-type clothespins into unitary groups comprising means for aligning a plurality of completely formed two-piece spring clothespins in side-by-side relationship, means for opening and releasing the jaws of the aligned clothespins, and means for inserting a spacer member into the open jaws of said aligned clothespins.

2. An apparatus according to claim l, wherein said means for opening and releasing the jaws of the aligned clothespins comprises an elongated compression bar vwhich `is adapted to force together the ends or the clothespins opposite the jaws. v

3. Anapparatus"according to claim l, wherein all of said vmeans operate in timed sequence from a common drive shaft.

4. An apparatus according 'to claim 1, wherein said opening and releasing means comprises an elongated corn-- pression bar whichl is attached to `two rocker arms that are adapted to pivot through a limited Varc so that the resulting movement of the compression bar will alternately open and close 'the jaws ofthe aligned clothespins.

5. apparatus according to claim l, wherein 'said last-mentioned means comprises a sliding plate arrangement for selecting one spacer member at a time from a supply'of "spacerl members and carry the selected spacer member into the previously'opened' jaws of an aligned row of clothespins, whereafter the sliding plate arrangement will return to its original position so as to be ready to repeat the above cycle of operations.

6. An apparatus according to claim l, which additionally contains means for automatically stopping the machine after each cycle of operations.

7. An apparatus for assembling spring-type clothespins into unitary groups comprising means for aligning a plurality of completely formed two-piece spring-type clothespins in side-by-side relationship, feeding means for feeding the aligned clothespins into a position so that the jaws of the clothespins can be opened, means for applying and relieving a compressive force to a portion of the clothespins so as to open and close the jaws thereof, and means for inserting a common spacer into the open jaws of said clothespins.

8. An apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said means for opening and relieving the jaws of the aligned clothespins comprises an elongated compression bar which is adapted to force together the ends of the clothespins opposite the jaws.

9. An apparatus according to claim 7, wherein all of said means operate in timed sequence from a common drive shaft containing appropriate cams.

10. An apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said opening and relieving means comprise an elongated compression bar which is attached to two rocker arms that are adapted to pivot through a limited arc so that the resulting movement of the compression bar will alternately open and close the jaws of the aligned clothespins.

1l. An apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said feeding means comprises a sliding plate arrangement for selecting one spacer member at a time from a supply of spacer members and carry the selected spacer member into the previously opened jaws of an aligned row of clothespins, whereafter the sliding plate arrangement will return to its original position so as to be ready to repeat the above cycle of operations.

12. An apparatus according to claim 1, which additionally contains means for automatically stopping the machine after each cycle of operations.

13. An apparatus for assembling a plurality of completely formed spring-type clothespins into a unitary group comprising a plurality of runways for aligning a plurality of clothespins in side-by-side relationship, a movable plate supporting said runways which is adapted to be moved under a jaw opening means, means for opening and releasing the jaws of the aligned clothespins, means for feeding a common spacer member into the aligned open jaws of said clothespins, means for returning said movable plate to its original position, and means for preventing said grouped clothespins from returning with said movable plate to their original position.

14. An apparatus according to claim 13, wherein said means for opening and releasing the jaws of the aligned clothespins comprises an elongated compression bar which is adapted to force together the ends of the clothespins opposite the jaws.

15. An apparatus according to claim 13, wherein all of said means operatein timed sequence from a common drive shaft. l

16. An apparatus according to claim 13, wherein said opening and releasing means comprise an elongated compression bar which is attached to two rocker arms that are adapted to pivot 'through a limited arc so that the resulting movement of the compression bar will alternately openfand release the jaws of the aligned clothespins.

17. An apparatus according to claim 13, wherein said feeding means comprises a sliding carriage arrangement for selecting one spacer member at a time from a supply of spacer members and carry the selected spacer member into the previously opened jaws of an aligned row of clothespins, Whereafter the sliding plate arrangement will return to its original position so as to be ready to repeat 15 2,716,804v

the above cycle of operations.

tionally contains means for vautomatically stopping the machineglafte'r eachrcycle of operations.v D

f v Rvefe'renc'es 4Citetl in the le of this patent i UNITED STATES PATENTSy 1,616,641*

Tainter Feb. 8, 1927 1,679,626 Perrault Aug. 7, 1928 1,694,875 Gaisman Dec. v11, 1928 1,829,651 Henderson Oct. 27, 1931 1,830,021 Forney Nov. 3, 1931 2,142,438 Faively Jan. 3, 1939 2,707,818 Page May 10, 1955 Johnson Sept. 6, 1955 

